VholdR Video Camera

UPDATE: See below for a video walk-through of the VholdR
helmet camcorder.

Summary

A nice motorcycle video camera with a useful form factor, but now surpassed
by more advanced cameras.

Background

I'm not sure when the phrase "camcorder" supplanted "videocam",
which is a contraction of "video camera".

But VholdR calls this device a "wearable camcorder", so there
you have it.

Wearable is probably stretching it (sorry), but the VholdR is designed
to mount on a helmet, motorcycle, bicycle or just about anything else you
can think of.

It's a completely self-contained camcorder, with a rechargeable Li-ion
battery and a 3.6 mm lens with a 90-degree viewing angle.

The VholdR videocam also has a CMOS camera (Minimum illumination: 0.04
Lux at f/1.2) a waterproof omni-directional microphone and a few on-board
LEDs to indicate the various operational states.

The lens rotates 180 degrees, and it even has two laser pointers which
can be illuminated to show the lens orientation and to aim the camera.

Using it is simple: mount it on your helmet or motorcycle, turn it on
and go for broke. It actually is that easy, as I discovered after a brief
orientation, and making your own on-bike videos is pretty cool. But let's
take a look, because there are a few issues here and there that prospective
owners should be aware of.

I'm still experimenting with the VholdR camcorder, so I don't profess
to know it all by any means. However, we have one of the first batch delivered,
having ordered it late last summer for an anticipated end-of-the-year arrival.
So I've been playing with it for the past couple of weeks, and I probably
have about as much experience with it as any other new owner.

The VholdR is yet another product in the continuing evolution of electronics
and computing over the last 20 years or so that has put some pretty sophisticated
technology into the hands of some pretty unsophisticated users like me.

Laptops, cell phones, digital cameras, camcorders and the software to
make it all work is sitting there on the shelves of your local Big Boxy
store, cheaper than dirt, just waiting to serve. OK, so the VholdR may not
be as cheap as dirt, but it still amazes me that all this technology is
here right now and it fits in the palm of my hand.

Not that the VholdR is the only game in town when it comes to helmet
camcorders -- as a matter of fact, as I started learning about the world
of miniature video recording with the VholdR, I've also discovered that
there are plenty of other mini- and micro-camcorders out there.

For example, how about the "PI-SpyCamStick",
which is about the size of a Bic lighter, and "can even fit into a
standard pack of chewing gum". It even comes with a 1 GB
microSD memory card.
Unfortunately you're on your own when it comes to a helmet or motorcycle
mount though...

Then there's the Oregon Scientific "ATC2K"
camcorder, which uses a standard SD memory card and is waterproof to 10
feet. It comes with a variety of straps to connect it to, well, whatever
you can connect it to using straps.

I'm sure there are plenty of others, but the point is that very portable
micro video is well within the means and capability of just about anyone.
I'm sure YouTube has a lot to do with the miniature videocam revolution
too -- there are devices out there that will record and upload directly
to YouTube with the press of a few buttons.

You can literally shoot a video on your motorcycle and broadcast it to
the whole world via your cell phone before you're parked back in the garage!
What's next, real-time on-bike video? Hey, why not?

So what makes the VholdR so special? Well, it does have an aluminum
body, although the base that sticks out on the bottom that holds the brains
and also acts as a rail for mounting is made from "baked fiberglass",
according to the company.

The VholdR isn't waterproof, but it is water resistant and it's relatively
tough, although our early example has a few too-loose tolerances that could
probably be tightened up to give the device a more solid feel.

But the biggest advantage of the VholdR is that it is designed as a helmet
camcorder. There are zero wires on the VholdR, unlike most of the other
helmet camcorders I've found, like the Bullet Cam, Archos, Helmetcamera
and others, which have wires connecting the camera with the camcorder or
videocam brains, which are usually carried in a separate bag.

A Look Inside the VholdR Video Camera

The VholdR uses a dedicated hardware video processor and obviously there's
some hard-coded software involved. I did see a reference to Linux zip by
on my screen as I was connecting the camcorder to my computer using the
VholdR's USB port, so apparently the penguin is involved.

The VholdR records MP4 videos in .avi format, which is a fairly common
video capture format used to store video in many digital photo cameras that
have a video capability. The VholdR uses the
Xvid codec to compress the video, which is available as a free download.

I had to download the codec to add to Windows Media Player to get the
VholdR's videos to play, and you'll also need the codec to read the file
into Windows Movie Maker if that's what you use to edit video, but the download
and installation of the codec was a simple and straightforward process.

By the way, don't discount the video capability of your pocket digital
photo camera either -- some of them take excellent video that rivals the
best DV camcorders around, in my opinion.

My Canon SD700IS photo camera not only takes great photos, the video
from its built-in camcorder is excellent. It has a metal 1/4-20 threaded
tripod screw on the bottom, so it wouldn't take much to rig up a handlebar
mount, although digital cameras are usually nowhere near as robust as something
like the VholdR.

OK, so what about the quality of the videos that come out of the VholdR?
Well, they're OK, but I'll have to say that I'm a bit disappointed, actually.
I guess I was expecting something close to the quality of the Canon, especially
considering that the list price of the VholdR is $349.99, which is a lot
of dosh for a simple camera. You can buy a very nice digital photo camera
for that kind of money, with excellent video capabilities included.

The VholdR's video is not as sharp as I'd like, and it also seems like
it needs more contrast. The fixed exposure setting blows out the highlights
very easily -- that is, the camera does a pretty decent job of exposing
mid-range colors like greens, browns and grays, but almost anything that's
white is completely blown out.

You can see this effect in the sample videos I took and uploaded to YouTube
and which are embedded below (one is a quick first video and the other is
a sample video from on the road; I'll post a video tour of the camcorder
details within the next couple of days).

Most of the video available on the Internet that is playable through
a browser is compressed in one way or another, either using DivX, Flash
or one of the many other formats. Every time a video is compressed, the
quality drops, with artifacts, "noise", dropped frames, smearing,
smudging and everything else you can think of. This is why it is important
to start out highest quality video available to end up with a decent-looking
video (and audio) after compression.

It's my understanding that Google uses some form of Flash compression
for YouTube videos, and it can make even a good quality video look pretty
bad after it's been put through the YouTube compression wringer.

But that's the price we pay for free video I suppose, although as home
bandwidth increases and as compression algorithms get better, we should
have near-movie quality online video someday soon. By the way, there are
some free video upload sites that either use different compression algorithms
or none at all, like Putfile.com.

The other issue I have with the VholdR camcorder is the camera mount.
VholdR doesn't offers only a few choices for mounting the camcorder to a
helmet, which is rather strange, considering it's supposed to be a helmet
camcorder. They only provide one mount with the camcorder; the others are
available as accessories.

The VholdR's helmet mounting adapter is a round, two-part plastic-like
plate with double-sided tape on the base. The VholdR has rails on either
side, molded into the "baked fiberglass" gondola-type thingy that
hangs off the bottom of the aluminum tube body, and the removable center
of the mounting adapter has matching notches that slide into the rails.

The center section is held to the mounting base with some incredibly
tough plastic "hook and loop" connector, and it takes a huge pull
to separate the center from the base. Once they're apart, the camcorder
can be rotated and re-attached to the base in any orientation, which is
necessary to align the lens to ensure the camcorder is level or oriented
in the plane you prefer.

The problem is that the round and flat mounting base is 57 mm in diameter
(2-1/4"), which, as I discovered, is too wide and flat to fit to the
shape of the contour of most motorcycle helmets. The base plate isn't flexible,
so this means that it isn't possible to stick the full portion of the double-sided
tape to the helmet -- or at least the 3 helmets I tried. I ended up having
to use a mess o' duct tape to stick the base to the helmet.

When you think about it, there aren't many flat surfaces on a motorcycle
either -- that is, surfaces that are both flat and which face forward and
which are also unobstructed. I had to duct tape the base to the side of
the Multistrada to take the on-road video. But since duct tape apparently
doesn't like below-freezing weather, it was touch and go whether the camcorder
would hold or not and I had to stop several times to re-stick it to the
tank.

I wonder if a mount with a smaller diameter base that was more flexible
would be better suited for a motorcycle helmet. There's also the issue of
sticking the mount with its double-sided tape to the helmet, which won't
look very good and could also harm the surface of those helmets with rubberized
finishes.

Or how about a mount that can be fastened up under the bottom of the
helmet shell, so that it can be removed and which could also be transportable
to other helmets?

The mount slides in to the rails molded into the base of the camera and
holds fast with a detent molded in to the rails. After placing the camera
in and out of the mount several times, the detents in the mount have become
loose and the rails look like they're pulling away slightly from the base
of the camcorder. The camcorder just isn't as secure as I think it should
be when mounted on the base, but so far it hasn't caused any problems.

And by the way -- the "hook and loop" connector that holds
the two parts of the base together is way stronger than the notch that holds
the camera on to the rails on the base, which I find rather strange. I think
it would be better if the camera locked on to the rails, because as it is
now, a not-too-hard hit to the back of the camcorder can easily knock it
off the mounting rails.

VholdR does offer a square mount, a goggle mount, a handlebar mount that
looks too low to me and a roll bar mount (for larger diameter round bars
and tubes), but they're all optional and cost about $25.00 each (they're
available through our affiliate
link to RevZilla). I think they should throw a few extra mounts in with
the camera, considering the price.

Saving and Playing Videos

The VholdR stores the video file on a microSD memory card. MicroSD memory
cards were formerly known as TransFlash cards, and they're claimed to be
the smallest memory card available. They're commonly used in cell phones
to store music and video, and although they're now available in an amazing
8GB capacity, VholdR specifically recommends the 2GB SanDisk microSD Premier,
which is a faster version of the regular SanDisk microSD card.

I didn't know about the recommendation, because there's nothing in the
owner's manual, so I bought and used a basic SanDisk 2GB microSD card instead.
It seems to work fine, with no dropped frames or other problems.

A SanDisk Premier 2GB microSD card can be found for around $55.00 to
$60.00, and unless you want to swap your cell phone's microSD card in and
out. I don't recommend this however, because the spring that holds the cards
in on the cell phone and especially on the VholdR can easily -- and I mean
easily -- launch the card across the room, never to be found.

When you buy a microSD card, make sure you get one with an SD card adapter.
The microSD cards are so tiny, it's nearly impossible to get them in a reader,
so you have to first slip them into a special SD card adapter, which you
can then insert in your memory card reader.

I did some rough calculations on file size and found that the VholdR
compresses the video down to around 25-30 KB per second (~1.8 MB/minute)
of video, which seems about right for an Xvid compressed 24-bit .avi file
at 640x480 pixels.

The VholdR has a USB port under the rear cap, but my computer doesn't
always recognize new USB devices, which is a problem with many other computers
for some reason. So I usually end up taking out the microSD card and inserting
it in the SD card adapter and plugging it in to a memory card reader to
get the .avi files.

The VholdR has a microphone in the front; I think it's hidden under a
very tiny hole on the bottom of the "baked fiberglass" appendage
that hangs off the bottom. The problem with this location is that it is
very affected by the wind, making the sound that accompanies the on-bike
videos pretty much worthless, because all that's heard is a loud blast of
wind. (Tip from visitor E.F. below: cut a small piece of duct tape and place
over the mic; this is will prevent all wind disturbance).

I would think the same might be true for fast downhill skiing or bicycling,
and I wonder why VholdR didn't locate the mic on the back of the unit or
some other location that might not be affected as much by the wind?
So don't plan on recording that nice, rumbling sound from your Termignonis,
because you probably will be disappointed.

Also, there's a glass cover on the lens, but no extra lens cap over that.
I'm not sure what will happen when the lens gets blasted with bugs and road
dung; I'm hoping VholdR will either offer a lens cap or extra clear lenses
to use as a replacement for the glass that's on the camcorder now, because
surely it will get scratched, if only from cleaning off the bugs.

The VholdR comes with the most basic of owner's manuals, but there's
more info online on the VholdR website. The owner's manual that came with
ours didn't say a thing about recharging, believe it or not. It can only
charge via the USB port, which means that your computer must be on the whole
time. I plugged mine in at about 1:30 pm one day, and at 1:30 am, 12 hours
later, the red light was still on, meaning it was still charging.

USB ports are powered, but just barely, and I think this isn't really
a very efficient method of recharging any device. I have a USB rechargeable
MP3 player, and I never use it for the same problem. Anyway, when I woke
up in the morning, the VholdR was finally charged, with the red light out.

An email to support said that the battery was charged at the factory
(there was nothing in the owner's manual that indicated that) and that they're
coming out with an external charger, which is good. I hope they include
it in the price of the camcorder though.

Once the microSD memory is installed and the battery is charged, the
VholdR camcorder is turned on by pressing and holding a membrane-type button
on the back for a couple of seconds. The red/yellow LED lights come on and
about 10 seconds or so later, you'll hear a beep, meaning it's ready to
go. A very tiny red light, located under the front of the camcorder, will
glow when the VholdR is powered up, but this light is very hard to see outdoors.

The lens can be rotated through 180 degrees, and there are two laser
pointers on either side of the lens, under the clear lens cover, that allow
the user to align the lens horizontally or vertically. It took me a few
rides to figure out the best way to point the camcorder, but I eventually
discovered that I could turn on the bike's headlight in the garage and aim
the VholdR using the laser pointers at about dead center in the headlight
pattern on the garage door for pretty good results.

The problem, of course, is that you don't know what you've captured until
you get back home, unload the camcorder and check out the videos.

By the way, I wish there were a way to turn off the sound recording function,
because the microphone is basically worthless when using the VholdR as a
helmet camcorder or when it's attached to the bike. Way too much wind noise.
Turning off the mic would save memory and processing time.

NOTE: These videos have been post-processed
with Microsoft Movie Maker and/or Adobe Premier Elements and saved as
.wmv files. They have been re-compressed by YouTube, so they are lower
quality than the actual raw video from the VholdR.

I almost never use a "raw" video right out of the camcorder;
I first bring it into Adobe Premier Elements to do some processing, fading
in and out, maybe add some music, and make any necessary cuts and edits.

For some reason, Adobe Premier Elements 3.0 and 4.0 just don't like the
.avi files that come out of the VholdR. Premier Elements Version 4.0 won't
work at all with the .avi files from the VholdR - it tells me there's a
problem with the audio format; another good reason why I'd like to be able
to turn off the audio recording at the source.

I had a 15-minute or so .avi file from the VholdR that I made out on
the bike during a ride, and I wanted to edit it down to show you an example
(above). This should have been about a half-hour process, but it took me
several hours of processing, rebooting both the computer and Premier Elements
and a lot of other messing around to finally get about 2 minutes of video.

I'm not sure why, but I never have this problem with raw video from a
mini-DV camcorder or even a mini-DV HD camcorder. I tried it on two honkin'
computers, both with 2GB of RAM, muscular video cards and one with the latest
dual-core Intel 2.4 GHz processor and a super-deluxe NVIDIA graphics card,
so I'm not sure what's up.

It could be the fault of Adobe Premier Elements, which is notoriously
slow. I know that Elements didn't like the length of the video, so I'll
have to keep the raw videos to 3-4 minutes in the future. Still, this is
something to note. I did bring a couple of the VholdR's raw .avi files into
Microsoft's free Movie Maker with no problems.

Note that because the .avi files coming out of the VholdR are already
compressed using the Xvid codec, they won't look very good when uploaded
to YouTube, which will re-compress them again using its Flash-based compression
system. It does look to me like the uploading and sharing portion of the
VholdR website is optimized for the Xvid codec and the videos there look
similar to the quality that can be expected right out of the camcorder and
played on your computer with Windows Media Player.

UPDATE: March 2008 - I never installed the software on the
CD-ROM that came with the VholdR, because I usually find the software that
comes with cameras to be mostly useless bloatware. The software isn't necessary
to use the camera, so I forgot about it.

Then I got an email from VholdR letting me know there was a software
update for the camera. There was a link to download what I thought was the
update. It wasn't - it was a downloadable version of the CD-ROM VholdR software
application.

It first downloaded and installed Microsoft .NET 3.0, a major download
and installation that may affect other software applications I have installed.
There was no notice that this is what was going to happen. The download
then wanted to install the VholdR application. I guess they figure if they
can't get you via the CD, they'll get you this way. I read the license agreement,
which seems very harshly worded and basically makes the user guilty until
proven innocent. I declined the offer and backed out.

I am very disappointed that VholdR forces owners to go through all of
this just to download a software update for the product. Any camera software
bug fix or update should be a simple process, just like every other camera
and videocamera and GPS and MP3 player I own. Download a small file, connect
the device via the USB port and update the software. The owner shouldn't
have to install some major software applications on the computer just to
get a camera update.

I guess if you've installed the VholdR application, you won't mind doing
this, but I find it intrusive and annoying, so I guess I'll have to go without
updates.

Conclusion

That's about all I can think of, but I'll report back if I have any other
findings. As always, we're interested in hearing from VholdR or other helmet
camcorder owners about tips and tricks.

The VholdR is a lot of fun. The quality of the videos could be better,
and it's too bad about the microphone location, and the mounting options
could use some help. But anyone can now go out and make some pretty cool
videos to share with friends. VholdR owners also get access to a special
website to upload and share videos, but it's not focused on motorcycles.

Comments are ordered from most recent to oldest.
Not all comments will be published (details). Comments may be edited for
clarity prior to publication.

From "D.H.": "I was cruising your site
looking at helmet cam options and noticed your review of the VholdR: I was
an early buyer and was very disappointed with this unit. My first one was
warrantied and the second was refunded so I won't fault their support, however,
the product just doesn't cut it though.

As you can see on their forums they have a lot of unresolved issues such
as software (they're asking for Beta testers at this point in time?!), hardware
such as batteries, useless microphone (and no, the freaking duct tape doesn't
work, as many have noted), muddy video, etc... didn't they even use one
in the real world before starting to sell these things?

I have since, admittedly paid more for a competitor's unit but it is
well worth every extra dollar as there is NO comparison to the video, sound,
simplicity and general build between the two products."

From "E.F.": "A helpful tip regarding
your article: Your article stated, "the problem with this location
is that it is very affected by the wind, making the sound that accompanies
the on-bike videos pretty much worthless, because all that's heard is a
loud blast of wind".

A simple fix: cut a small piece of duct tape and place over the mic.
this is will prevent all wind disturbance."

From "R.L.": "I donít own one of these
cameras, but I thought Iíd let you know an easy way to charge it without
leaving your computer on all the time. Purchase a powered USB hub (comes
with a wall-wart power supply of its own), and put that between the computer
and the camera. Now it will charge with the computer on or off, and you
get a few more USB ports out of the bargain. I do this with my iPod, and
it works great. Powered hubs are available at any semi-decent computer store;
online or brick and mortar."

From VholdR: "...You did appear to have some
questions in your posting and I can answer those for you (see below). It
did break my heart you put the video on YouTube in place of VholdR.com.

I also noticed that you didnít use the (VholdR) software so any questions
or feedback you have would be appreciated. You are one of the first people
to use a VholdR and weíll continue to improve the firmware, software, and
community over the coming months. Thanks for being a customer and if you
can, Iíd love to hear feedback as you have it.

Recharging: right now the light doesnít turn off when itís fully charged.
Itís a firmware piece we are updating soon. From 0 to charged is about 2
hours.

Youíre right about the video editing programs not liking the Xvid codec.
It is a newer format so it is still being implemented into most video editing
programs. The reason itís used because of its compact file size and quality
settings, especially in working with a hardware device.

In reference to your YouTube quality, itís the reason we have an online
community with the desktop software, so we can optimize for the file type
and offer high quality video. Users will run into an issue if they export
the video from an editing program and then have any online video community
host it, because of the compression settings. VholdR uses a variable bit
rate between 1.5Mbps and 3.0Mbps, so you will want to export with at least
these video settings.

Iím surprised you didnít like the video quality as much. Itís very advanced
for a single chip, point of view, video product. Especially one that is
digital. We did everything we could to stuff the best video quality into
such a small space, while still delivering a longer battery life and video
speed. The CMOS sensors are the best of the bunch for handling fast changing
lighting conditions.